Religion a key issue as Illinois Republicans go to polls

Santorum beckons social conservatives who feel persecuted because of their faith

March 18, 2012|By Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune reporter

The issue of religious freedom, raised by all four Republican candidates but identified most strongly with Rick Santorum, finds an interested audience as the contest reaches Illinois.

Last year in Illinois, Catholic Charities and the Evangelical Child and Family Agency were forced to pull out of the foster care business when they refused to license couples in civil unions. The state's six Roman Catholic bishops also have protested a federal mandate requiring Catholic hospitals and universities to cover contraceptives for their employees.

Some believe Santorum's religious rhetoric could lure socially conservative voters who feel persecuted for their religious beliefs and who argue that the nation's founding principle of religious liberty is under attack by President Barack Obama's administration. Religion is seen as a lightning-rod issue, similar to the proposed bans on same-sex marriage that drew social conservatives to the polls in 2004 and helped George W. Bush win re-election.

"The language that we hear about the Obama administration waging war against religion is both energizing and polarizing," said Ralph Keen, chair of Catholic studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "The person who declares that there is an Obama-led war against religion is going to be recognized as the leader of a cause that mobilizes. It's going to mobilize the religious population."

Yet the religious calculations are not simple.

Santorum, a Catholic, has failed to win a plurality of the Catholic vote in any primary so far. Instead, the former Pennsylvania senator has relied on evangelical support.

According to a Tribune/WGN-TV poll conducted March 7-9, 42 percent of Illinois voters described themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians. Of that group, 42 percent backed Santorum, compared with 26 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is Mormon. Of the 54 percent of voters who do not consider themselves born-again or evangelical Christians, Romney led Santorum, 43 percent to 22 percent. The poll did not give voters the option to identify as Catholic.

Romney's Mormon faith may hurt him with some voters. In 2010, the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale conducted a statewide poll of registered voters that found a majority would never vote for a Mormon, results that were not publicly released at the time.

"Rick Santorum's faith should play well in Illinois," said Tobin Grant, a professor of political science at SIU who worked on the poll. "It's unlikely that people will choose him because he's Catholic per se, but as a committed Catholic, Santorum shares the same values, beliefs and viewpoints as many Republican Catholics in Illinois. In central and southern Illinois, Santorum will also draw support from evangelicals and other conservative Protestants who will value his family and faith."

Santorum has made headlines with his critique of the landmark speech delivered in 1960 by then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy in which he emphasized the separation of church and state he believed was guaranteed by the First Amendment.

"What kind of country do we live in that says only people of nonfaith can come into the public square and make their case?" Santorum said on ABC News' "This Week."

But Douglas Kmiec, the Republican Catholic who famously supported Obama in 2008, said claims of the White House's war on religious liberty are nothing but political fiction. Speaking last week at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Kmiec said Catholic social doctrine demands that parishioners weigh multiple issues including economic inequality and the environment.

And Santorum's conservative Catholic positions have not sat well with Catholics who are less traditional. Studies show that the vast majority of Catholic women have used birth control, and Santorum's stance against contraceptives has alienated some Catholic women.

He also faced criticism in 2003 when he delivered the keynote address at a Youth and Family Encounter in Chicago sponsored by Legions of Christ, a conservative Catholic order of priests. The group was founded by the Rev. Marcial Maciel, who at the time of the Chicago rally faced sexual abuse allegations. Maciel died in 2008.

"Santorum is a Catholic who is very aligned with church teachings and positions on issues. Unfortunately, I'm not sure the average Catholic is these days or they're indifferent about a lot of things" said Jim Fair, a spokesman for the Legion of Christ who helped organize the rally that year.

As a religious organization, Legionnaires don't endorse candidates. But Fair is not surprised that many Catholic voters don't support the Catholic candidate.

"If you surveyed only those Catholics who are really practicing the faith, you'd get very different survey results as just people who identify themselves as Catholic," Fair said.